Break it down

We are a pretty deep team. Attitude is great and the play is inspired. Fox and staff continues to do a great job. What are the high points and the downs?

 

outside of the fumbles...there were downs?

 

Defense is nearly 2 deep at every position.

Skip Hicks, Rod Smart, and Michael Bates has made this team so far. Nick Goins (sp) needs to look for a job.

Randy Fasani needs to look for a job.

Chris Magnum needs to look for a job.

 

Mangum needs to learn where the damn stick is and get beyond it before he makes the catch.

Fasani runs at the slightest bit of pressure. He'll have to make a play or two @ NYG to stay on the roster past next week. Peete, Delhomme and Weinke looked about even as a group, but they did clearly outdistance themselves from Fasani.

Seidman showed up Wiggins and Mangum. I've been waiting for a reason to cut that guy, and Seidman's it.

Davis played like a STUD tonight in limited action. I don't know if it was only to stick it in Spurrier's grill, or if he is really THAT kind of football player, but a fine start nontheless.

Hicks,Brown, and Smart gave excellent accounts of themselves. Goings finds himself on the low end of the totem pole.

Graham and Kasay remain even in their kicking duel. You can't fault Shane for a 55 yard miss, as it was on line.

Aside from a couple of big pass plays, all defensive units played disciplined football and flowed to the ball well. Kavika's pick shows the depth of our DL this year, potentially making the starting front 4 even more dominant this year.

Gross was punked by Zellner once, but didn't give up the sack. The rookie played well. Brezinski may have had one too many Philly cheese steaks before reporting to camp. He did nothing to distinguish himself and Jeno showed he was deserving of a role on the 1st team OL.

 

The kick was well short, I could deal with a miss right or left better but with the distance. My vote is for Kasay right now.

 

Well, having to settle for field goals in the red zone when the 1st string was in concerns me a little bit....gave me a flashback to previous red zone problems...

 

Kasay's gonna break again

 

ok here are my opinions..1st team defense was lucky..ramsey had three key drops that would have resulted in first downs and prolonged drives in panther territory..the long pass to coles should've been a td except he was off balance and stumbling when he caught it..then the lifeguard they got to kick missed a 35 yd fg..
awesome games by ricky manning and emanuel mcdaniel. and evicka pittman..and william hampton

rodney peete threw bad passes a couple of times to open receivers..fasani had happy feet again and needs to go..and get bates out of the backfield..that was brutal goal line offense

moose must be in a contract year again..awesome catches and nearly made an incredible fourth one..

undecided about kickers..leaning to graham on youth and price

and dan morgan didnt get hurt yet

 

Kickers: People are reading too much into the fact the 55 yarder was short. Graham has the leg to make it, but apparently did not hit it solid...if you look back at his 50 yarders last year, they were long enough to make last nights distance. Also, If you look at the kickoffs, he actually showed more leg than Kasay (not that long KO's automatically translate into long FG's, but it is an indication of leg strength). Personally, I was glad that the kick had the accuracy. At this point, I don't see any reason to annoint one kicker over the other as the starter right now...they are still neck and neck and have a few more games to separate themselves.

I also am not overly worried about not scoring TD's in the redzone...at least, not yet. After all, whenever we got down there, Davis came out. I assume the coaching staff is comfortable with what Davis can do, but was evaluating Brown and Bates (why???). They also probably didn't want to give too much away to the 'skins since we'll be playing them in November. Now if we continue to have trouble scoring TD's during preseason, then I'll be worried. But since I don't see any way (barring injury) that Davis will not be on the field when we are in the redzone during the regular season, I look at this a just a matter of evaluating other players.

As for the Redskin drops, true they would have kept drives alive, but the defense was still dominating and I doubt they would have resulted in much. Just as I don't think Coles would have scored, Minter had the angle and would likely have cought him at about the 10-15...close enough for a field goal, but far from a certainty for a TD.

 

I am disappointed in Fasani. I didn't expect him to compete for a starting, but I did expect him to come into camp better prepared. It just doesn't look like he did much of anything to improve his passing in the offseason.

I REALLY like Seidman. I like his moves as a receiver, and I was impressed by what I saw of his blocking.

Ricky Manning looks to be a player for us. I have high expectations for him and Wesley. On the other hand, I was thoroughly unimpressed with Franklin. Every time I noticed him, his man had a step on him...and that was against the scrubs.

I'll totally disagree with Gross being punked by Zellner. The only mistake he made was taking Zellner inside, which chipped Donnally off his man who came free to pressure Rodney. But Zellner never beat him; Gross did not allow him anywhere near Peete. And that chip was incidental, Zellner was trying to get upfield but Gross pushed him out of the play...unfortunately, he pushed him into Donnally. So it was not Zellner directing anything, just a rookie mistake that Gross will learn from.

I also think Smart is going to beat out Bates for the ST/RB spot. He is just as good a Gunner, but a much better RB.

One other thing, Witherspoon still has some work to do in coverage. I love him against the run, but think he gets out of position a bit in pass coverage.